RELATE - from DMS Connect

2018 - Number 1

Strategic Planning

What's Inside: Facebook 101: Planning Your Strategy Use our expereince to help you build your social media presence. Marketing: Importance vs. Time Spent - Does It Add Up? Are you spending enough time on marketing? Book an Office Visit Let's Get Social

CONNECT. PROSPECT. ENGAGE.

www.dmsmarketing.ca

Late last year we decided to add another element to our marketing mix: social media. It was an interesting project to put together as there’s so much more to it than meets the eye. We took a couple months to plan our strategy and launched our Facebook page early in January with our goals, plans and a working schedule in place. Here’s a behind the scenes look at how we planned, what we did and what we learned. We hope you are able to glean some insight from our experience that you can relate to your social media marketing strategy. Also, if you have any tips or suggestions, please drop us a line on Facebook: @DMSConnectCanada. PLANNING • We chose to have a Facebook presence because it seems to be where most of our clients (and prospects) are active on social media. Facebook is also easy to use; we’re familiar with the platform from our personal use and it fit well with what we wanted to be able to communicate (images, text, links, questions, etc.) Our suggestion to you would be to look where you’re most comfortable and start there. • We decided we needed to pick a particular day (or days) to post and a time. Studies from numerous social media experts say that posting daily is recommended. However, consistency is even more important. We set a schedule we could keep up with – Monday, Wednesday, Friday worked for us. We post throughout the day, but concentrate the majority of posts between 1pm and 4pm as historically they receive the best interactions. When choosing your schedule and time, think about how you’ll maintain the frequency when you’re busy and set realistic expectations for each week. • Thankfully Facebook has a built-in scheduling feature so we can set up our posts ahead of time. Other apps are available too like Buffer and Hootsuite. It’s great if you can plan posts in advance and focus on your social media once during the week. In the long run, it will save you time. Just remember social media is a communication tool. Don’t set and forget – monitor your reactions, comments and messages. It’s as important to respond to people personally as it is to put up a post. EXECUTION • Armed with our plan and three months’ worth of posts, we started making our page. It took us a while to decide on the right header image, page type, information we wanted to include and how it would look. We learned that Facebook is a very complex tool and there are many customization options. We go back periodically and tweak our information. • Our research told us that images get the best interactions on social media so we include a visual with most of our posts. That being said, it’s even more important to post interesting and valuable content people will engage with, so we vary our post types as should you. Posting the same thing repetitively gets old and followers are less likely to interact and find value in your messages. • Once we started inviting people to like our page and sent a couple emails to our clients to let them know about our Facebook page, we started to get notifications on our reach, likes, friends and followers. We’ll save that information for another post, but there is sure a lot of information you can find out – except for a very detailed list of who likes your page (we thought it would be easy to find out, but turns out, not so much.) What’s next for us – well, we plan to keep posting at least 3x a week. We want to increase our friends/followers base so we’ll boost a post or two. We’ll also try Facebook Live (gulp) because we hear it’s the next big thing. We’re excited to see what type of engagement we get. FACEBOOK 101: PLANNING YOUR STRATEGY

CLEANING KEYS TO PASS ONTO YOUR CLIENTS When selling a property, cleanliness is key. Here are a few things homeowners may overlook when preparing their home for sale: • Dust ceiling blade fans and light fixtures • Vacuum and wash the floors behind and under appliances • Clean out the refrigerator and cupboards/pantry • Wash the windows (inside and outside) • Wash the front door and entry way as well as other entrances to the house • Wash all baseboards • Polish all woodwork, mirrors, faucets, sinks, hardware and light fixtures • Clean inside the oven, dishwasher, microwave, washing machine and dryer • Empty the garbage cans and clean inside them to remove odors • Remove all ashes and soot from the fireplace; leave in a new, fresh log

Real estate is all about marketing. You're marketing yourself to the public, friends and family to gain their trust and business and you're marketing properties to help your clients meet their housing needs. But just how important is marketing and how much time should you spend on it? We took to our client base (you) to help answer these questions and more. Here's what we found out: Marketing: Importance vs. Time Spent - Does It Add Up?

Let's look directly at marketing yourself to current and past clients - otherwise known as relationship marketing. The goal of relationship marketing is to build on the relationship you have so these clients refer you and continue to do business with you in the future. From our survey, the top four methods of staying in touch are: 1. Social media, 2. Email, 3. Phone calls and 4. Addressed Mail. This is great! A mixture of connections works best to strengthen relationships and that mixture should engage all the senses in a visual, tactile, and personal way. However, knowing the average agent spends less than 30 minutes a day on these connections, it is likely they aren't being used as effectively as they could be. Furthermore, if marketing is not consistent, you could be leaving business on the table at the end of every day. When asked how many hours they’re spending on marketing in a month, these agents averaged 6 to 15 . Broken down, it means the average agent is putting in less than half an hour a day on marketing. Considering business in real estate comes from the people who know and trust your brand, are you spending enough time marketing to them so you stand out? We surveyed 85 real estate agents in Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa in the last few months and found the majority of agents ( 95.3% ) believe marketing is important or very important in their real estate business. Over half of these agents ( 54.8% ) have been in the business between 4 and 15 years , so we believe they know what they're talking about.

95.3%

of agents believe marketing is important in their real estate business.

Hours Spent on Marketing in a Month

0 to 5 6 to 10 11 to 15 16 to 20 21+

Keeping In Touch with Past Clients

73%

68%

67%

53%

45%

31%

6%

6%

Email

Other

Nothing

Phone Calls

Social Media

Client Events

Drop-by Visits

Addressed Mail

Take a look at your week and your marketing practices. If you fall into the same category as the agents we surveyed, marketing is very important but there’s not quite enough time to spend on it, think about outsourcing. Social media and of course phone calls work best when it’s your voice coming through, where as email and printed newsletters are effective with a small personal touch and can easily be outsourced to free up your time.

Laura and Amber like travelling to meet our clients and their colleagues in person. We have presentations we can present to your office about marketing and how DMS Connect can help with client retention programs and prospect marketing. We also have presentations about relationship marketing and how to set up an effective marketing plan to help grow your business. If you’d be interested in having us to your office, please Book Us In Your City!

email Laura at laura@dmsmarketing.ca . She’d be happy to discuss an office visit with you.

LET’S GET SOCIAL We’re ready to connect with you!

Like us on Facebook - we'll share marketing tips, real estate info, ideas on how you can grow your business, a look behind the scenes at DMS Connect and much more. @DMSConnectCanada

Due to rising postage costs, we will be increasing the per-piece pricing on our Mini-Mag newsletters by 2% effective immediately. If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-309-1747.

phone: 780.489.2969 toll free: 1.800.309.1747 email: consult@dmsmarketing.ca website www.dmsmarketing.ca

This publication was written and produced by DMS Marketing Inc. for information purposes only. Though we seek to provide information based on factual and reliable sources, DMS makes no warranty or guarantee of the accuracy of the information offered. Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved. Printed on recyclable material.

Not intended to solicit buyers or sellers currently under contract. JUST LISTED & SOLD CARDS Advertise Properties and Market Yourself Just Listed cards are a great way to advertise a property for sale in a neighbourhood and at the same time have those neighbours take notice of you and your marketing abilities. Sold cards bolster your skills even further as they show you can get the job done! Price Reduction and Featured Listing cards can help boost the appeal of listings you've had on the market for a while. Make the Right Move! Call me today! arnoldkennedy.com arnold@gmail.com 101-10620178St. Edmonton, ABT5S2E3 1 2 3REALTY 2 Styles • 3 Templates • Customizable Colours • Create Your Own Option

at 780-405-6057

Beforeyoubuyor sell inWalkviewcall: Arnold Kennedy

Template 1

Template 2

Template 3

Readmoreaboutourcommunityatwww.arnoldkennedy.com

I live and work in the area!

Just Listed 1234WalkviewCrescent Edmonton,AB

Call formore Info! ArnoldKennedy 780.489.2969

Front

Front

Front

Back

Back

Back

Make it a brochure & add an inside page

ARNOLD KENNEDY C :780.489.2969 • E :arnold@gmail.com • W :arnoldkennedy.com

Features: • StainlessSteelAppliances • MapleCabinets • GraniteCountertops

• LargeIslandw/UndermountCorianSink • MassiveBonusRoomw/LargeWindows

• HotWateronDemand • OriginalOwnerSelling • Fireplace

Price: $472,000 SquareFeet: 1,969sq/ft MLS#: 000000000 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 3.5 Garage: 2car

Inside

Inside

Inside

phone 780 489 2969 toll free 1 800 309 1747 fax 780 486 1421 email consult@dmsmarketing.ca address 101-10620 178 St NW Edmonton, AB T5S 2E3 website www.dmsmarketing.ca

Activation Form - Just Listed & Just Sold

1. Complete your personal information and check additional info you would like included in your artwork design:

Name

Company Name

Company Address

City, Prov

Postal Code

Office Phone

Cell Phone

Fax

Email

Website

Designations

Slogan

2. Delivery & Pricing Information

Choose Template: 1 2 3 On File Brochure (8.5" x 11") Post Card (8.5" x 5.5") Custom Design: $185 (one time design fee, then stored on file)*

Postal Code

Letter Carrier Walk

Household #

*Current clients receive a multi service discount on custom template design. Design fee $50.

Post Card Per Piece: 100 - 250: $0.55 251 - 500: $0.34 501 - 1000: $0.30 1,001 - 2,000: $0.26 2,001 - 3,000: $0.24 3,001 - 5,000: $0.21

Brochure Per Piece: 100 - 250: $0.60 251 - 500: $0.39 501 - 1000: $0.34 1,001 - 2,000: $0.31 2,001 - 3,000: $0.28 3,001 - 5,000: $0.27

Deliver to:

Houses

Apartments

Both

Ship to Post Office:

Alternate Day Friday (included)

(Add $35 for delivery)

Canada Post Corporate Rate (if applicable): Customer No.: Agreement No.:

Applicable Taxes Extra

Please note: To use your Canada Post contract rate for postage, provide your customer number and agreement number below. Non-contract postage rate of $0.18 per piece applies otherwise. Postage Additional: $0.11 - $0.18

Please note: Canada Post updates their postal walk boundaries on an ongoing basis. DMS Marketing uses the most current information provided by Canada Post at the time of mail induction.

01-18

3. Property Information

4. Method Of Payment I authorize DMS Marketing to charge my Visa or MasterCard for the Design Fee of $ and for the print and mailing fees.

Just Listed Just Sold Price Reduction Featured Listing MLS#

Card Number

Mastercard Visa

Property Address Neighbourhood Property Price Signature Date

Cardholder Name Expiry Date Signature Date

phone 780 489 2969 toll free 1 800 309 1747 fax 780 486 1421 email consult@dmsmarketing.ca address 101-10620 178 St NW Edmonton, AB T5S 2E3 website www.dmsmarketing.ca